To Summarize

This has been a wonderful exploration of technology.  I really enjoyed trying all this software out, but it comes so fast towards the end.  I suppose this is necessary with a class schedule.  I just feel that I did not get enough time to explore how each of these work.  A little more time would be necessary to understand how to use them in a library setting.

I find it fun to explore technology, even the technology I cannot use.  The library I currently work in has a (one) student internet computer.  Since I am staff, I cannot use it.  I do not have the right login.  The students can use it, if they can remember their password, but any social media (Facebook, Blogs, Twitter) are strictly blocked.  This is somewhat sad because it limits what I can use in the library.  Even linking to some of these technology software programs can bring up the block screen. 

Also, there are no presentation areas in my library or classroom that can use computers.  This means that much of the technology I have learned about cannot be used.  I can only work with those items I have access to.  I just hope I can convince the school to let a library wiki site remain!

I am grateful for all this fun.  At UELMA, I discovered how heavily the library media specialist used technology.  It was amazing to realize how many of the technologies I had learned about were talked about.  I was glad that I had played with them.  I am sad now to be ending all this fun!

One last thing! Prezi!

At the beginning of a college class, I met Prezi.  I had never seen it before and I kept wondering how it worked.  So before I stop playing with all these technologies, I wanted to try it.  I liked it a lot better than I thought I would.  I was not certain how much I would enjoy a program that made me feel sick when it went from one position to another.  I really think it works well and I like how it can side ways thinking.  It is really a fun program.

So here is my Prezi on, what else, Big 6!

Viewing a Video on Prezi

Way Cool!

I like Google Docs! I knew people made surveys and somehow connected people to their websites but I had no idea how easy it was to do. Now, I know what I could do to make my library easier to run. (If of course they are not blocked!) It would be so much easier to use a Google Doc to create lists of books the teachers and students want in the library, if they can send them. I am just so excited to try it!

Word Art

Well, wordle makes good art. I just wish I could rearrange the good art. My head just uses the words differently and I think they look better that way.  Tagxedo does so much better, but is a little trickier to navigate. Why can't you rearrange the words in Wordle! Oh, well.

Wordle is good for fast art.  It is a lot of fun. It is easy to use and if you are not too picky about it, it is a good way to make posters. I can see having students use it for projects. I think they would really enjoy the art they create.  It is awkward to save though.

Tagxedo is better for those of us who have pictures in our head! (It is easier to save, too.)

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Too Much Noise!

Podcasts are not for me!  Do to a hearing problem, it takes longer for me to listen to something than for me to read it, because I must listen several times to make sense of what is being said.  It comes out as just noise.  I know it is probably odd to feel this way about this, but I can't comfortably listen to music either.

I also found it difficult to find podcasts I wanted to listen to.  If I focused on libraries, I either got book reviews - which seem to be what librarians use podcasts for - or long scholarly dissertations.  But enough of my kvetching.  After many hours I found a podcast dealing with libraries which was neither book talks or scholarly dissertations.  It was put out by AASL, as a promotion for their magazine Knowledge Quest, and discussed co-teaching.

AASL - Knowledge Quest - March 2012

It gave a short blurb on what co-teaching is and its benefits.  Some of the benefits it listed were:
1.  Students get to observe collaboration in progress.
2.  Students get more attention and assistance.
3.  Students get better guided inquiry for their needs.
4.  Students get quality feedback and process checks.
5.  Teachers get imbedded professional development.
6.  Teachers get increased help with discipline, assessment and curriculum goals.
7.  Librarians get a chance to use their curriculum!

Even with all these benefits though my favorite part of the podcast was a quote!

       "Teaching is too difficult to do alone, collaborate with your school librarian.”

Now, the only thing I need to decide on is which genealogy podcast I should listen to first! 
Family History
Genealogy on Demand 
Genealogy Gems
 

Glogster Posters

This was another UELMA conference suggestion.  It is a little bit funny to use.  But you can create great posters.  You can make these very involved with them but I don't like things to be too busy.  Here is one done for the UELMA conference that is much busier.

Scoop.it

Scoop.it is a fun site to make an online magazine for others to use.  It is quite easy to use.  (I used the websites recommended at UELMA to make this magazine.)  It is also fun to put together the site collection.

http://www.scoop.it/t/library-website-resources

I can see all sorts of ways this could be used in a library.  The way I think would be the best is for limiting student sources for assignments.  Many of the librarians I have talked to said that students really struggle to find information when offered too many sources.  This technology allows the teacher or librarian to limit this.

A Deaf Librarian!

In looking at the various videos, I thought about the deaf.  I wondered what videos existed for the deaf, that shared books or even if it was possible to "read" a book in ASL.  I also wondered how a librarian might incorporate services for groups with disabilities like the deaf.  In looking at what videos existed, I fell in love with watching this librarian share different books with the children at the deaf school she worked at.  It made me think a lot about the students I might as a librarian need to serve.

I am amazed at the energy she puts into her reading and how much you can learn about the story without knowing ASL.  It is inspiring.

Twitter vs. Facebook

After looking at Twitter, all I wanted to do was go back to my Facebook account.  They are quite similar, but one can be turned off without turning off the computer and the other is always on.  I prefer to turn off things when I am not using them.  I do this with electricity, water and I just cannot get my head around the idea computer programs must be always on.  I do not even like telephones because I cannot turn them off.  Perhaps this is why I prefer Facebook.
 
Both formats have a use in libraries.  Constant updates definitely are preferred by technologically savvy youth.  They cannot even understand not answering the telephone.  If my classroom phone rings in the middle of class and I am busy, I will ignore it.  It drives the students up the wall.  They are so programmed to answer it, now.  So for them, Twitter might be a better choice, since it stays on.  In my setting though, set times for twitter updates would be necessary, since they are not suppose to be answering their electronic devices during class time.

Twitter is also a better interface for librarian question and answers, and time sensitive announcements like, "The power is out at the library."  But for most library announcements, Twitter seems a bit inconvenient.

Facebook works better for those who only want to look at announcements at certain times that are convenient for them.  For most library announcements, I think Facebook is the better choice.  Announcements about library programs and events do not require immediate notification.

This means that both Twitter and Facebook are good sources for libraries to use.  (But I still like Facebook better.)

Subscribing to Blogs? Why?

Time flying,

          What ya doing,
Reading someones blog,
     Things to do ... waiting.

So much to do,
           What ya doing,
Reading blogs,
      Why? ... What is the point?


With the limited amount of time each of us has, I just don't get why anyone would subscribe to a blog.  It is obvious that people do but I cannot understand it.

Having said this looking at blogs, blog readers, and blog indexes is interesting.  I think I prefer to read the blogs outside of the reader though.  The reader distorts the posts and makes it so boring to read.  I like it better when the posts and the pictures interface together.
In looking though various blogs on both genealogy and school librarianship, I notice I tend to choose those which look more like the magazines that I enjoy reading and less like personal writing stories or prompts.  For instance, I quite enjoyed reading some articles in the magazine Teacher Librarian and the blog is similar. I also like Lemme Library.  Though how anyone could ever find a particular post idea for use at a later time baffles me.  I know I could never remember what date the post appeared.

I like how blogs connect from one to another.  It is a nice thing to use those links to find other information.  It would be nicer if one could be sure of a blogs veracity.  I just don't understand why anyone would care what some stranger says without references.

Too much!!!

It is all well and good to have all these ways of contacting each other, but when do we live.  This is just getting out of hand.  In 1900, there were two means of communication, talking face to face and writing via the mail.  Today, we can talk, on the phone, over the radio, face to face... and write an email, a blog, a wiki, a letter... or maybe you just want to Skype.  I think we have gone overboard.  We are spending so much time worrying about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 which while the might be "wonderful" probably will just take more time.  If we keep going at this rate, we will be communicating all the time with nothing to say.

Searching Blogs???

Blogs are about being trendy.  When people follow a particular blog, it is considered trendier than another.  This is not because it is a better authority but simply because more people like it.

The site http://technorati.com/blogs/directory/ directory categories only consist of trendy topics.  This leaves out a lot of subjects that relate to personal hobbies.  The directory’s large categories list nothing on history, education and interestingly crime, but lots on entertainment, living, technology, cars, sports, and environment – topics that are trendy.  It is particularly interesting that entertainment seems to be what people most look for in blogs, though politics and business are also evident.

I like the blog search in http://technorati.com/ better than the post search.  I chose two random subjects to search for blogs about.  The first search I did was a blog search on genealogy.  It brought up 705 blogs.  Then I did a postings search on genealogy and it only gave four results.  I did a second search to see if this made sense according to its search.  This time I search for model trains.  In the blog search I got 39 blogs.  In the posts search, I got seven.  I think the blogs search is a better option, but only if you are into this kind of thing.  Now, I wonder what http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com has to say…

Diigo

The idea that you can share bookmarks without having to copy and paste them is interesting.  Diigo is very interesting.  It seems like a good idea, but the cost issue will limit its use.  In exploring Diigo, I particularly liked how people could leave comments about the site.  Some of the comments are very nice, in that they tell one about cost or usefulness.

I can see that this would be very useful to librarians because it could be used to find connected information on a topic.  In a school, it would also be useful for subject research topics in that it gives you an easy place to get lists of websites for using in a custom search.  The connections with the comments can help one find good sites.

Rollyo Search and Google Custom Search

When I first read about Rollyo, it sounded so fun that I wanted to get several good sites.  I happily went about finding sites on space exploration, nativity sets and genealogy.  Then I went to Rollyo.com and was met with the message "Rollyo is Undergoing Maintenance.  We'll be back soon."  Over several days, I checked back with the site to see if soon had happened.  I do not know what their version of soon is but a week is not soon.  I find this very poor wording on their part.

Since I could not use Rollyo, I went searching to see if I could find another search engine which would do a similar type of thing.  I found out that Google Custom Search does something similar, so I tried it out.  I think it is great.

Loading

In the library, I could see this type of multiple site search engines would be very useful, particularly in a situation where the cooperating teacher had a particular subject they wanted searched.  This would help with time constraints, since the students would not need to search, critique, and comprehend the sites for their assignment to be completed.

This type of search engine also allows for the same search to be preformed on multiple sites at the times.  Sometimes when I do research, half of my time is taken up with waiting for the computer to load various sites with search engines so that I can search them.  It is a real annoyance.  Having one search, if the search engine is good, speeds things up.

Also, this can allow a librarian, to make the library website more user friendly.  A website with a search function, allows users to pinpoint information without looking through the entire site.  Most users do not what to be looking for something for a longer time than it takes to use the thing.  This is definitely true of website patrons who want their information now.

I think these type of searches are very useful and a good addition for libraries and website creators alike.

Goodreads

 Out of curiosity, I also looked at Goodreads.  Of the two types of book "cataloging" sites, I prefer Goodreads.  I find it to be a little more user friendly.  You do not have to know the titles of the books - or even go find them to input them in.  Instead, you tell the site about the genres you think you read.  From a rubric, the site offers you possibilities.  As you rate the sites, a rubric determines possible recommendations and other book options you might have read.  It is very interesting to see what this rubric brings up.  This different format made it actually easier to identify books.

Goodreads also allows one to accept recommendations by 'friends'.  This 'friends' linking mechanism makes it easier to find librarians and follow subjects.  Similarly, Goodreads allows you to separate book shelves and organize books by a subject or genre.  This site I actually think is better for librarians because of the rubric and genre shelving.

Elizabeth's bookshelf: read



More of Elizabeth's books »

Library Thing

Library Thing is very interesting.  I have often wondered about it, since it is very helpful when doing subject assessments for the library.  I have used it frequently to help me find books, reviews and information concerning particular subjects areas.  It contains book relationships  that help one know when about book connections.  It was particularly helpful when I was requested to put back together a religious section.

I was surprised how easy it is to make a list of books.   It was kind of fun.   It is a lot easier than other cataloging systems I have worked with.  I wish library cataloging systems were so easy.  Admittedly, you can only get subject ideas from the tags people put on their items, so it would not work well unless tags were made.

I think it is ideal for small collections, like professional materials used by teachers in their classes.  Teachers are always collecting materials to use in their classes.  It would be nice, if all the teachers made logins, then their coworkers could then learn about their resources.  This would be very useful to a librarian, too.  It would allow them to know how to help them and where to send their coworkers when sources were needed.  It would be great.

Image Generator

It is such fun to create images on image generators.  It was a lot like working on a program like PhotoShop.  I was interested that so much could be done online, if one has rights to the picture.  The picture I used was one I took in San Diego last May.  Having looked at several of these generators, I think it would be very easy to run into difficulties with copyright.  I understand better now why graphic artists can infringe on each others copyright so easily like they did over an image of Steve Jobs.

Several days this last week, I used some freeware images to create "wanted" posters for 29 cub scouts.  I did it with Microsoft Word since I would not feel comfortable uploading pictures of cub scouts without their parents permission.  It is a lot of fun to do this and the boys loved it!

Wikis

Wikis are very interesting.  I like how multiple people can work on them together.  This could make group projects so much easier.  When I was in college for my undergraduate degree (from 1994-2003), wikis were not quite trusted.  If you wanted to do a group project, it was essential that group all meet together or send a lot of emails.  I often wondered how the non-traditional students managed to work and do these projects.  I knew wikipedia existed, but it was considered a bad source.

Looking over how a wiki is posted to, I wish wikis had a family tree application.  The LDS church has been trying something like this, but it does not really work well yet because people do not know about it or notice each others comments!  I much prefer wikipedia.  It is easy to search through and give pretty good information.  Once during a seminar, the presenter said that when the LDS church was looking at the wiki application they 'edited' some sites on wikipedia with incorrect information to see what would happen.  Within the hour, the cites were changed back and they had received a message to leave them alone.  I also like that wikipedia allows for citations, language changes and photos to be attached to their articles.  This is very helpful when doing research.

Beautiful Library

 
This is by far the most beautiful library I have ever visited.  It is in Dublin at Trinity College.  It is called the 'Old Library' and this room is called the long room.  We went to see the Book of Kells, but this seemed to me worth the visit all by itself.  I particularly was interested in how it seemed to organized by shelf section.  Oh, how I wished to explore it.

Life - Long Learning

I love learning.  Since, I was very small my mother read to me.  When I was a baby, she read the Bible to me.  When I was a toddler, I would sit on her feet while she cooked dinner and she would ‘read’ a book called Cars and Trucks.  Once I learned to read my family went to the local library at least once a week.  This was my normal.  Today, I learn almost constantly.  Someone asks a question, like why is Friday the thirteenth unlucky and I have a puzzle to solve.   It’s great!

According to some people there are seven habits to be a life long learner.  I am not sure, but I certainly do a lot of them.  Probably the only one I don’t do is start with an end in mind.  Sometimes when I am learning something, I just want to learn for the sake of learning.  It is fun!  I don’t plan to use it.  I will probably never need to know how highly metallic water tastes, but when I went to Teddy Roosevelt National Park and they said not to drink the water because of its metallic content, I still felt I had to taste it.

Another of the habits is to be responsible for your own learning.  I am not even sure I know what this means.  I mean who else cares what you learn.  I admit I take classes that are hard for me, like English, because I think some day I might figure it out.  But, nobody else will care if I know how to write a technical paper.

I know I can learn stuff, if I have time.  I expect there are things which a general lack of interest in, will keep me from learning, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t learn them, just that I am unlikely to.  And it doesn’t matter what I am learning it will take some figuring to know where to look for it.  Goodness, it doesn’t even matter if I cannot find it quickly, I suspect then that I am looking in the wrong place.  Let’s be honest Algebra is not U.S. History.

I have always enjoyed technology and teaching.  Ask the students, I tried to help in the second grade.  Fear, which seems to get in the way of learning about technology or teaching, is just there to get in the way.  So learn, keep learning, and go, go, go.  After all, we all need an education and if we stand still we won’t get it.